Trimming machine



Sept. 5, 1939. A. c. SMITH TRIMMING MACHINE I Filed Aug. ll, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet l Sept. 5, 1939. Q SMITH 2,171,608

TRIMMING MACHINE Filed Aug. 11, 1938 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. 5, 1939 TRIMMING MACHINE Archibald C. Smith, Rochester, N. Y., assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. 3., a corporation of New Jersey Application August 11, 1938, Serial No. 224,314

7 Claims. (01. 164-47) This invention relates to trimming machines and is herein illustrated as embodied in a form designed especially to trim surplus portions of linings of shoes. The purpose of the invention is to provide improvements in trimming machines of the type set forth in an application for United States Letters Patent Serial No. 168,919, filed October 14, 1937, in the name of W. P. Abell.

One improved feature provided by the present invention, which sacrifices none of the improvements set forth in the application above mentioned, comprises manually operable means by which a reciprocatory power-operated trimming knife may be started and stopped at one limit of its operating range to facilitate forming sharp angles in the line of trimming. This feature enables an operator to turn a work-piece abruptly while the knife is at rest in a layer of work and at the apex of an angle to which the out has progressed under high-speed power operation. Having turned the work-piece to the desired position, the operator may restore the operating connection of the knife to proceed with the trimming at high speed from the turning point.

Another improved feature comprises a novel combination including the aforesaid starting and stopping mechanism and connections by which .a slight movement of the manually operable controller beyond its stopping position will retract the work-support from its operating position and thereby unmask the point of the cutter, to the end that the point, then at rest, may be used to pierce the lining, as when preparing to cut out a panel thereof, or when starting a trimming cut in the plane of the insole of a sandal.

These and other features of improvement illustrated in the drawings are hereinafter described and claimed.

Referring to the drawings,

Fig. 1 is an elevation and partial section of the head of a machine organized in accordance with this invention, the direction of view being from left to right as the operator faces the machine;

Fig. 2 is an elevation of some of the starting and stopping connections as viewed from the back;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section, partly in elevation, of a portion of the head as viewed from the front;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view including a treadle mechanism and a knee-lever mechanism, one for starting and stopping the knife, and the other for retracting a trimming-guide;

Fig. 5 is an elevation (enlarged scale) including the knife, the work-support and the trimming-guide, viewed as in Fig. 1;

Figure 6 represents a panel of lining in section in process of being lifted past the worksupport after being pierced by the point of the 5 knife; and

Fig. 7 represents a shoe of skeleton construction typifying the various trimming problems with which the present invention is concerned.

Referring to Fig. 1, the trimming knife is a 10 flat blade I0 the butt-end of which is affixed by screws H, II to a small block 12 with the usual provision for vertical adjustment. The block I2 is affixed to the lower end of a vertical knife-bar l3 in well-known manner with pro- 15 vision for horizontal adjustment, the connections including an attaching screw 14 and cooperative tongue-and-groove formations i5. As shown on an enlarged scale in Fig. 5, the lower end of the knife-blade is formed to provide a slender attenuated point 16. This point has an acute cutting edge H the lower portion of which is sligh- 1y inclined with respect to the path of the knife, and the upper portion of which is incurved to accelerate the cutting effect during the downstroke of the knife. The cutting portion of the knife measures about inch from front to back. The point l6 serves not only to pierce the work prior to the actual trimming, but its attenuated form enables it to serve as a pivot about which the work may be turned abruptly without being torn or distorted, provided the operating movement of the knife be interrupted while the work is being turned. The procedure for doing so is hereinafter described. 5

Figs. 1 and 3 represent the trimming knife at the lower limit of its operating stroke, but both limits are represented in Fig. 5. The point of the knife is normally masked by a portion 58 of a work-supporting member, the butt-end of which is afiixed by a screw 19 to a supporting bracket 29, the work-supporting portion l8 and the buttend of that member being connected by a fiat shank portion 2| of the same thickness as the shank of the knife-blade l6 and lying alongside and almost, if not actually, in contact with the vertical back-edge of the knife. The portion i3 is provided with a sharp edge 22 (Fig. 6) with which the cutting edge I! cooperates to trim the work with successive shearing cuts.

The normal position of the work-supporting member I8 is represented in Fig. 5 by broken lines, but under some circumstances, this member may be raised to unmask the point It, as when it is desired to pierce a panel of lining prior to severing it or to pierce the lining of a sandal at some point close to the insole where it may be desired to start the trimming. The bracket is affixed to a vertically movable sleeve (Fig. 3) by a clamping screw 26 and a dowel 21. The sleeve 25 remains normally at its lowest position where it is supported by a nut 28 screwed on the lower end of a cylindrical bearing member 29 that serves as a part of the frame structure. The upper end of the member 29 is affixed by screws 3! to the main frame 36 of the head of the machine. Three bushings 32,'of which two are arranged in the member 29, provide bearings for the knife-bar I3.

The member 29 is also bored to provide a bearing for a vertical rod or bar 33, the purpose of which is to support a trimming guide 36 in cooperative relation to the knife if? and the worksupporting member l8. The trimming guide is affixed by a screw toa small block 36 which,

in turn, is affixed to the lower end of the bar 33 by a screw 31. The contacting portions of this bar and the block 36 include cooperative tongue-and-groove formations 38 capable of relative horizontal adjustment to provide for locating the work-engaging extremity of the guide 34 in the desired relation to the other work-engaging elements. The bar 33 is normally depressed by a compression spring 39 (Fig. l) and is sustained at the desired operating level by an outwardly extending finger M3 that normally rests on the upper end of a screw 4|. The bar 53 extends through a bore in the finger Ail and the finger is affixed thereto by a screw 42. The screw engages an internal thread in a bracket 53 carried by the sleeve 25 and is effective to adjust the trimming guide 3 3 up and down as may be required by the thickness of the work.

Although the trimming guide 35 normally remains stationary at the lower limit of its range of vertical movement, it may be raised slightly to avoid obstruction to feeding movement of the work, as when a seam in the lining of a shoe has advanced to the cutting locality and is about to pass between the trimming guide and the worksupporting member l8. For this purpose, the outer end of the finger Ml is extended to overlie and engage the left-hand extremity of a lever 45 (Fig. 4) in which a hole 4'! is bored to receive a horizontal fulcrum-pin or screw (not shown) by which the lever may be mounted on. the front side of the frame 30. A rod 48 provides an operating connection between the right-hand end of the lever it and a knee-lever 49. The latter is designed to be mounted on the pedestal (not shown) of the frame and is arranged to swing on a horizontal pivot-pin 50. When the kneelever is moved to the right it pulls down the rod 8 and thereby raises the trimming guide 34 without imparting any movement to any other workengaging element.

The sleeve 25 is guided up and down by an inner sleeve 52 affixed to the member 25. The inner sleeve also serves to prevent turning movement of the sleeve 25. For the latter purpose, the left-hand side of the inner sleeve is ground away to provide a flat vertical face 53 with which two flat bars or straps 5% have sliding contact. These straps are secured to the outer sleeve 25. All the details of construction hereinbefore described, with the exception of the shape of the cutting portion of the knife iii, are similar to corresponding details illustrated and described in the aforesaid pending application Serial No. 168,919.

One of the novel features of the present invention provides for arresting the operation of the knife-bar l3 and raising the latter to the upper limit of its range of travel without unmasking the point of the knife. Referring to Figs. 1 and 3, the knife-bar derives its operating movement from a reciprocatory actuator shown as a block 55 mounted on the knife-bar near its upper end but not directly secured thereto, the bearing sur faces of these two members being such that, under certain conditions, the knife-bar may remain stationary while the actuator continues to move up and down thereon. An eccentric strap 56 is connected to the member 55 by a pivot-pin 51 and. is provided with a ball-bearing 53 carried by a wrist-pin 59 on a continuously driven shaft 63. This shaft is enclosed in the upper part of the frame 36 and is mounted in ball-bearings one of which is indicated at 6i. Any suitable means, such as an electric motor (not shown), may be provided to drive the shaft 5%, preferably at a speed of about 4000 R. P. M. The length of the operating stroke imparted to the actuator 55 is preferably about inch.

Manually controllable means for starting and stop-ping the operation of the trimming knife comprises a block (i2 affixed to the knife-bar it above the actuator 55 and provided with a horizontal pivot-pin 63 on which a latch E3 is mounted. A hook portion formed on this latch is arranged to cooperate with a complemental hook portion $5 formed on the actuator 55 to establish a positive operating connection between the actuator and the knife-bar when the topface of the actuator is in contact with the bottom-face of the block 62, as shown. in Figs. 1 and 3. This operating connection may be interrupted merely by turning the latch tit in a clockwise direction about the pivot-pin 83, but, for the purposes of the present invention, it is desirable, whenever this connection is interrupted, to raise the knife-bar to the upper limit of its range of travel and to maintain it at that limit until the time comes to reestablish the connection. Consequently, the block 62 is provided with a face 56 that serves as an abutment to arrest the unlatching movement of the latch and to cooperate with the latter in raising the knife-bar to the upper limit of its range. A pin 67 affixed to and projecting from the latch is arranged to be engaged and raised by the upper end of a short vertical lifting rod 68 from which a horizontal pin 69 projects to be operated by manually operable lifting means. The lifting rod 68 has a bearing in a hole bored in the frame 30, and the horizontal pin 69 projects through a slot 13 in the frame. Turning movement of the actuator 55 and the block 62 about the axis of the knife-bar is prevented by two vertical confronting cheeks arranged to engage opposite faces of bosses 23, 2d, formed respectively on the actuator and the block. One of these cheeks appears in Fig. 3 and is indicated at 96.

The latch 64 is normally maintained in the latching position by a light tension spring H only the lower portion of which is shown in the drawings (Fig. 1). This portion is attached to an anchoring pin 12 but the upper end of the spring may be hooked over the outer end of the latchpin 61. When the lifting rod 58 is raised from its normal position (represented in full lines) to the upper limit of its travel (represented in dotted lines) it first disengages the hook portion of the latch from the hook element 65, thereby releasing the knife-bar from the actuator 55, but before the lifting rod 68 reaches the upper limit of its travel, the turning movement of the latch is arrested by the abutment 66 and the remainder of the lifting movement is effective to raise the knife-bar to the upper limit of its range where it is arrested by a stop-screw 73. This screw is set into the top of the frame 30 and in practice it is adjusted to permit the full operating stroke of the knife-bar without being actually struck by the bar, but with no more than enough clearance to avoid impact. Consequently, the point of the knife remains masked by the work-supporting member i8 and the operating connection may be readily reestablished when the lifting rod 63 descends to its initial position. When the knife-bar is thus arrested and raised without raising the work-supporting member IS the point of the knife may be used as a pivot about which to turn the work.

The manually operable mechanism for controlling the starting and stopping mechanism just described includes a treadle 15 (Fig. 4) a treadlerod 76, a lever H, and other parts shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The treadle i5 is bored to provide a hole 18 to receive a horizontal fulcrum-pin or screw (not shown) by which it may be mounted on the pedestal of the machine. A tension-spring l9 normally raises the treadle. The lever 17 is also bored to provide a hole 85 for the reception of a horizontal fulcrum-pin or screw (not shown) by which it may be mounted on the back of the head portion 38 of the frame, opposite the lever 46. The left-hand end of the lever T! (Fig. 4) is provided with two vertical holes 39 and 82. These ar occupied, respectively, by a pin 83 and a link it, the holes being larger than those members to ermit them to slide therethrough. A compres- ;ion spring 85 of greater power than the spring Ii (Fig. 1) surrounds the pin 83 and is compressed setween the lever and a head 86 at the upper and of the pin, the spring being compressed by a wt 8? on the lower end of the pin. The pin 83 tlld the spring 85 are arranged to communicate ifting movement from the lever 11 to the horiiontal pin 69, and th resilience provided by this :onnection permits overtravel of the lever H berond the point where upward movement of the )in 69 is arrested by the stop-screw 13. This over- ;ravel of the lever TI is utilized to raise the work- :upporting member l8 when it is desired to unnask the point of the knife for piercing purposes.

With regard to the purpose last mentioned the ink 84 provides an operating connection between he lever Ti and the sleeve 25 with which the link it! is connected by a pivot-pin 88. A short hori- :ontal pin 89 carried by and projecting from the ink 84 supports the lever 11 initially in the posiion shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and when the lever is aised, it does not communicate any movement to he link until it has fulfilled its first two functions f interrupting the operation of the knife-bar and arrying the latter to the stop-screw 13, but there- .fter the free end of the lever 17 engages and aises a nut 95 screwed on the upper end of the ink 84. Consequently, the overtravel of the lever i has no further effect on the knife-bar but lifts he sleeve 25 about of an inch. This lifting of he sleeve 25 shifts the work-supporting member 8 toward the butt-end of the knife far enough unmask the point of the knife, then at rest and aised, and it likewise shifts the trimming guide a by reason of the upward travel imparted to he finger iil (Fig. 1) by the screw 4| and the racket 45 in which the screw is mounted.

Considering the effects of the treadle mechaism in conjunction with Fig. 5, the work-supporting member I 8 normally occupies its lower position represented in dotted lines, and in this position it masks the point of the knife throughout the range of operating movement imparted to the knife. This is where the work-supporting member remains for all trimming, both marginal and interior, and for using the point of the knife as a pivot about which to turn the work. In this figure, both limits of travel of the knife are represented. When the treadle 15 is depressed only far enough to raise the lifting rod 68 (Fig. 1) to its upper limit of travel, the only effects on the elements included in Fig. 5 are to interrupt the operation of the knife and raises the knife to the upper limit of its range where a very narrow portion of the point It spans the gap between the portion l 8 and the trimming guide to serve as a pivot about which the work may be turned. This condition is desirable when the trimming has progressed to the apex of a sharp or abrupt angle in the line of trimming Where it may be necessary, for smooth clean trimming, to turn the work with the trimming knife at rest. Assuming that the operator has turned the work and is ready to continue the trimming away from the apex of the angle, he has merely to release the treadle, whereupon the latch 6 3 will reestablish the operating connection.

If, on the other hand, it is desired to unmask the point of the knife for piercing purposes, the treadle 75 should be fully depressed to produce overtravel of the lever '1'! after arresting and raising the knife. Such overtravel will raise the work-support IS and the trimming guide 34 to the positions represented in full lines in Fig. 5, and the point of the knife will thus be unmasked and accessible for piercing a panel ill of lining in the manner represented in Fig. '3. To elongate the incision in the panel suificiently to enable the worksupporting member l8 to pass through it, the operator has merely to feed the pierced material about A; inch against the cutting edge l1. Having done this, it is necessary only to release the treadle to restore the parts to their initial positions in which the knife-bar will be picked up and set in operation by the reciprocatory actuator 55.

While a trimming operation is in progress, the operator will maintain a finished edge 92 of the upper against the left-hand face 93 of the trimming guide which is adjusted to provide a gap between it and the work-support equal to or slightly more than the thickness of a single layer of lining but not so great as the aggregate thickness of the lining and the upper.

A machine embodying the features herein described may be used to sever all surplus lining from a sandal or from a shoe such as that pictured in Fig. 7, including any lining that may project above the top-edge 95 of the upper and all panels by which the openings or cut-outs 94 are initially covered.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desired to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a trimming machine of the type in which a knife-bar provided with a pointed knife at one end is operated by power-driven mechanism comprising in combination an actuator and coupling means by which the bar and the actuator may be coupled and uncoupled without arresting the actuator: a slender work-supporting member formed and arranged to project through an incision in the work adjacent to the knife and normally to mask the point of the knife throughout its range of operating movement, manually operable means arranged to impart uncouplinig movement to said coupling means and to impart a back-stroke to said knife-bar, and a stop arranged to arrest such back-stroke while the point of the knife is within the masking range of said. work-supporting member.

2. In a trimming machine as defined in claim 1, manually operable means arranged to shift said work-supporting member in the direction of said back-stroke to unmask the point of the knife.

3. In a trimming machine as defined in claim 1, means arranged to impart movement derived from said manually operable means to shift said work-supporting member in the direction of said back-stroke and thereby unmask the point of said knife for piercing the work.

4. In a trimming machine as defined in claim 1, a resilient element in said manually operable means to permit a range of overtravel beyond the point where the knife-bar is arrested by said stop, and means by which such overtravel is transmitted to shift said work-supporting member in the direction of said back-stroke far enough to unmask the point of the knife for piercing the Work.

5. In a trimming machine as defined in claim 1, a latch pivotally mounted on said knife-bar and constituting said coupling means, and an abutment arranged to'arrest uncoupling movement of said latch, said latch and said abutment being cooperatively efiective to impart said back-stroke to the knife-bar.

6. In a trimming machine of the type in which the point of a knife that derives reciprocatory motion from a power-operated actuator is normally masked by a member arranged to be shifted at will toward the butt-end of the knife to unmask the point; coupling means arranged to couple and uncouple said knife and said actuator without arresting the latter, a trimming guide arranged normally to remain in one position adjacent to said masking member but shiftable individually in a direction away from the latter and toward the butt-end of said knife, and two manually operable means, one to shift said masking member and the other to shift said trimming guide as aforesaid, said coupling means being connected to and operable by one of said manually operable means.

7. A trimming machine as defined in claim 6, in which said coupling means is connected to and operable by the manually operable means from which the masking member derives its unmasking movement.

ARCHIBALD C. SMITH. 

